IRAQ: Museum looters must be brought to justice

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Att.Editors: The following item is by the United Arab Emirates news agency (WAM)

ABU DHABI, May 8 2003 (IPS) - A prominent Arab archaeologist has held the occupation authorities in Iraq responsible for the looting and stealing of ancient antiquities from the Baghdad National Museum.

In a lecture at the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Zayed Centre for Coordination and Follow-up, Dr. Hussam Mahmoud Mahdi, Egyptian expert in archeology, called upon the international bodies concerned, Arab scholars, and interested circles all over the world to "take legal action against the criminals who have looted the Museum and bring them to trial as war criminals."

Chasing such criminals and incriminating them entails concerted efforts on the part of governmental and non-governmental organizations, international bodies, and the mass media, he said.

He maintained that the evidence of this crime is easy to provide. – There have been eyewitnesses, journalists, besides the TV satellite stations which have shown the occupation troops standing as spectators while looting and destroying the Baghdad National Museum was going on."

There is also the memorandum signed by 1,000 US archaeologists, before the war started, who cautioned the possibility of destroying Iraqi museums, according to Mahdi.

This should indicate that such an act has been planned and pre-arranged, he said, adding that efforts have to be concentrated on saving and restoring the missing pieces.

Dr. Mahdi pointed to a legal problem in this context, as the US is not a party of the Hague Convention. As such, the US is not committed by its rules. Thus the US sees its responsibility in maintaining and restoring these antiquities as merely ethical and voluntary, he said.

Yet, he stressed, the occupation troops, according to this convention, are committed to protect antiquities, restore the looted pieces, and also compensate for the material damages occurred. The lecturer stated that restoring these stolen antiquities is very difficult as the smuggling process is rather complicated and linked to professional gangs.

He added that UNESCO is seeking now to launch a campaign to restore these antiquities through incriminating the museums that buy them and boycotting them internationally.

He then reviewed the historical, moral and material importance of these antiquities referring in particular to their close connection to the national identity and history. The national heritage for each country, he added, is originally a common human heritage.

In another context, he said that the ancient Egyptian monuments, kept in some other countries such as the US or Germany, have been taken to be symbols for their civilizations. "As such these relics would be very hard to restore despite the persistent efforts made by Egypt to get back some of its smuggled or stolen antiquities," Mahdi noted.